Turn the Home Theater Into a Multimedia Empire

Published: November 18, 2004

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Photos: LOUD AND CLEAR -- While more digital high-definition television programs are being broadcast, rabbit-ear antennas are not ideal for capturing them. The Terk HDTVi ($40; www.terk.com) is an indoor antenna for apartment dwellers and others who cannot use a rooftop aerial. It is meant to be highly directional, unlike rabbit ears, to ensure clean reception of digital signals even in urban areas.; COMMAND AND CONTROL -- Multiple TV's, computers, sound and home theater systems -- each with its own remote control -- are complicating leisure time. Logitech says its Harmony 676 universal remote ($230; www.logitech.com) can unravel such messes with a single touch. Once connected to the Internet (through your computer's U.S.B. port), the controller quickly evaluates which components need control and how to do it. It can manage up to 255 operations and has three interchangeable faceplates.; POCKET VIEWING -- Tune into ''The OC'' on your Pocket PC wherever you may be with the TVCF Card from EOps Technology. The card is a television tuner that plugs into most Pocket PC's with CompactFlash slots (a list of compatible models is at www.eopstech.com); users can watch local broadcasts, toggle between landscape and portrait views and bookmark favorite channels. It costs $129 plus shipping and is available from EOps, which is based in Hong Kong.; MAXIMUM FORCE -- Jedi Knights worldwide waited a long time for George Lucas's landmark space opera to hit DVD, and the four-disc ''Star Wars'' box set ($50;www.foxhome.com) has not disappointed. All three films are remastered and a fourth disc is stuffed with documentaries and even an Easter egg. (Hint: on the Video Games and Stills screen, press 10+ on the DVD remote, then 1, then 3, then 8 to unlock a hidden blooper reel.); AGE APPROPRIATE -- Conceived as a portable media player for the ages -- preteens, mostly -- Juice Box from Mattel is a rugged, brightly colored box that plays digital video, music and pictures. The $70 box (www.juicebox.com) has a threeinch color liquid crystal display and lots of easy-to-use buttons. It plays video features from special cartridges ($10 to $25). An optional $40 kit lets users import pictures and music.; THE ENTERTAINER -- You will be hearing a lot about Microsoft's software for Portable Media Centers. You will probably hear very little about how they cannot record video directly. You have to buy videos online or install a TV tuner card in your PC. The much smaller, slimmer Archos AV420 ($450; www.archos.com), however, can record from a TV, DVD player, VCR or whatever, even on a timer. It works with Macs and PC's, and even offers a built-in microphone for live audio recordings and a card slot that lets you offload photos from a digital camera. (The AV480 holds four times as much and costs $650.); STREAM LAND -- Instead of dragging friends and family over to the computer to see your vacation photos or hear the latest song you have (legally) downloaded, let them relax and experience your collection through your home entertainment center, courtesy of your networked streaming media server. The EyeHome from El Gato ($200 at www.elgato.com) works with Macintosh computers. Windows users can do the same trick with the Media-Link from ADS Technologies ($249 at www.adstech.com).; ROOM TO SPARE -- TiVo owners know the ecstasy of pausing, rewinding or effortlessly time-shifting their favorite shows -- and the agony of running out of space on the hard drive. Toshiba (www.toshiba.com) has solved that problem by adding a DVD burner to its TiVo. A couple of button presses saves any program (or a batch of them) on the model RS-TX20 onto a DVD. The units 120-gigabyte hard drive ($470) holds 40 to 120 hours of shows. (Model RS-TX60, about $550, holds about 35 percent more.); OFF THE DESK -- This black brushed aluminum box looks more comfortable on a shelf with home entertainment components than on a desk next to a computer monitor. And that's the way it should be: the $2,000 HP z545 Digital Entertainment Center (shopping.hp.com) is designed to store all your media files and integrate and control your entertainment devices. Inside is a 3-gigahertz, Pentium 4-based computer with 360 gigabytes of storage and more: dual television tuners, FM tuner, DVR, DVD player and recorder, and video-audio jacks and ports for practically any electronic device with a screen or speaker.; WATCH THIS SPACE -- If you have a high-definition TV, you have spent a lot of money for something that is probably turned on for a few hours a day at most. With the slim $300 Roku HD1000 media player attached, however, your screen can also be a breathtakingly high-resolution picture frame that (if you buy the optional Art Paks, at rokulabs.com) displays works of art, animated nature scenes or an animated tropical aquarium. Best of all, the Roku serves as a high-definition display for your own digital photos, loaded either from a memory card or over a home network, complete with musical accompaniment. (Photographs by Tony Cenicola/The New York Times)